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Which pepper to grow in TX

Right. What a honking giant bag of frustration!

I'm thinking we are going to need a new strategy with these 36-day growing seasons. Either:

a) Someone develops extremely quick-maturing varieties, or
b) We build grow houses with climate-controlled conditions like that huge thing in the Caribbean, effectively extending the season to 365 days, or
c) Maybe a super-thick shredded wood mulch layer with some type of drip irrigation for turbo-evaporative-cooling?

Probably this subject deserves its own thread, because I don't think we can expect "normal" summers anymore...

Here in North Louisiana we dodged one more bullet when the arctic air passed through last night. Absolute lowest measurement I can find is 42ºF.

lol. 35F here (and still only 38), but outdoor plants seem to have weathered it okay. We'll see. When it hits 40, I'm dragging the jungle back out of my kitchen. Should at least make my wife happy. :)
 
Right. What a honking giant bag of frustration!

I'm thinking we are going to need a new strategy with these 36-day growing seasons. Either:

a) Someone develops extremely quick-maturing varieties, or
b) We build grow houses with climate-controlled conditions like that huge thing in the Caribbean, effectively extending the season to 365 days, or
c) Maybe a super-thick shredded wood mulch layer with some type of drip irrigation for turbo-evaporative-cooling?

Probably this subject deserves its own thread, because I don't think we can expect "normal" summers anymore...

Here in North Louisiana we dodged one more bullet when the arctic air passed through last night. Absolute lowest measurement I can find is 42ºF.

how bout a cross between an orange hab (grows well all year) and some of the superhots(more picky). Best of both worlds? Maybe we'd get lucky with some of the seeds will have both the heat of the superhots but the endurance of the habs... haha
 
very similar IMO...others may have a different opinion...and by the way...for what it's worth, I really think the Red Savina is just a Caribbean Red that was grown out under a certain set of circumstances..we all know how much the LC testing changes for different samples of the same variety...

Thanks for your help btw AJ... i'm loving the peppers so far (what little I got anyway) lol
 
lol. 35F here (and still only 38), but outdoor plants seem to have weathered it okay. We'll see. When it hits 40, I'm dragging the jungle back out of my kitchen. Should at least make my wife happy. :)

Nice! We should have a few warm days now...

how bout a cross between an orange hab (grows well all year) and some of the superhots(more picky). Best of both worlds? Maybe we'd get lucky with some of the seeds will have both the heat of the superhots but the endurance of the habs... haha

I like it! The Northern New Mexico growers, who have a significantly shorter season than those at Las Cruces, have selected C. annuum landrace types such as Española and Nambe Pueblo that give ripe chiles in just a few weeks....I wonder why that can't be done with C. chinense...
 
AJ,

How did your plants hold up to last nights weather?

-J

got a bunch of "frost burn" on the tender tops but otherwise the plants seem to be doing OK...the growth has slowed to a crawl though...here's the thing...when I first started growing peppers, I was growing cayenne, tabasco, jalapeno, and orange habs...and the very first thing I noticed was the annuums are a much better fit for the weather here than the chinense are...and if you have a greenhouse, you can get an early start and grow in there until late March/early April but a greehouse gets too hot for the plants during late spring/summer/early fall...sooo....I have decided to just grow what I can and get what pods I can...you just can't get around mother nature unless you have bunches of dollars to spend...I would love nothing better than to have a 40' X 60' greenhouse that is totally environmentally controlled...heated and cooled but I don't have the land or financial backing for that kind of operation...and if I did, I would have to make money on it to support the facility...

I have decided just to go with the flow and grow what I can...
 
Good to hear that you didnt have any extreme issues. ALL of my plants are stunted in ways that I didn't even know was possible. Most look like they are just little bushes with a few flowers here and there. The production this year isn't going to be anything impressive and might not even get pods on three plants if they dont start getting with the program. I firmly believe all the issues are from the summer, there for almost three months I dont think the plants grew more than an inch in any direction haha. 40' x 60'.. good lord, gonna need someone to help work that... I'm game! haha. It's amazing how expensive just a greenhouse alone cost, not including all the bells and whistles for a full scale operation. If I ever win the lottery, I'll be sure to get ya setup haha.

-J
 
Torno, are your plants potted? If so, try re-potting them into a larger pot if you want a larger plant. If the pot size is not an issue...are you feeding it sufficiently ...or too much?
 
Torno, are your plants potted? If so, try re-potting them into a larger pot if you want a larger plant. If the pot size is not an issue...are you feeding it sufficiently ...or too much?


It's not my growing methods or pot sizes, it's mainly due to them being started late in the year and then the summer kicked into full gear and put a hurting on overall growth. The ones I started and grew inside after everything else are much bigger but once they were to big for inside and went outside into the heat they too slowed waaaay down in growth. Either way I'll have a much earlier start next season and going to push for an early harvest before the summer kicks in.

-J
 
Yeah I am just hoping to get my indoor plant producing soon and have my two cuttings healthy for next year. One thing is for sure...I learned a lot in my first habanero attempt. I may have to start using a CFL light soon. I'm not going to do anything too fancy just make sure it's near a full spectrum CFL light. Anyone have any recommendations on the type of light?
 
I'm going to be using a 4 ft 8 bulb T5 setup for seedlings and growing them inside until plant out next season. I figure there is well enough light to get them growing and keep em healthy, getting them outside is where the magic will happen haha, let mother nature do all the work for me :) Can't get a late start this year, gonna have seeds planted by the mid-last part of December.

-J
 
I'm not going to do anything too fancy just make sure it's near a full spectrum CFL light. Anyone have any recommendations on the type of light?

I have an old cheap 5 light chandelier that I use 3 42 watt 2700K and 2 42 6500K CFLs in...that gives me a total of about 15K lumens and will fit in an area 2 X 2....plenty of light for growing...you can get the 42 watt 2700K CFLs at Lowes or Home Depot fairly cheap but you will have to order the 42 watt 6500K online...

@ Torno...if you want ripe pods before the heat hits, you need to have them outside by mid March...that will give you about 110 days until the end of June...
 
the best for me this year were baccatums. i grew a few different varieties, and they have done very well in the heat
 
Can't get a late start this year, gonna have seeds planted by the mid-last part of December.

I'm going to try and do the same. I planted just after Christmas last year. Depending on my schedule, it may be that "late" again. I did get a mild early harvest from some chinenses.

@ Torno...if you want ripe pods before the heat hits, you need to have them outside by mid March...that will give you about 110 days until the end of June...

Exactly when I planted out, too. Always makes me nervous that early, but it worked out this year. Advantage is that hardening off isn't nearly as precarious as it is in April. I think our first 95F day this year must've been around tax day.

Do you guys keep potting up indoors till plant out? My pot ups seemed to do a little better since they were slightly larger upon going outside to play.

the best for me this year were baccatums. i grew a few different varieties, and they have done very well in the heat

Same here, but that seems to not be consistent with others in heat. What varieties did best for you. Mine were Criolla Sella, Kaleidoscope, Aji Omnicolor, and Aji Angelo.
 
Very much like Birgit's Locoto. If you've never tasted Birgit's, then I would describe it as like Aji Limon, but more pungent, with a cleaner, sharper flavor.
 
2012 will be my first season to grow peppers. I just read this whole thread, start to finish. It was very informative, and made me glad that my first grow year was NOT 2011. It was punishingly brutal here in Austin. Never paid so dang much for electricity in my life.... COMBINED! :eek:

Glad to see a thread for the TEXANS. Thanks to all who wrote in this thread.
Cheers to you! :beer:
 
Hell I didn't even get seeds started until the mid part of March 2011 so I was waaaay behind the growing curve at that point haha. Next season I plan on starting in mid-late Dec in 72 cell trays and then pot them up when needed until March for plant out. I'd like to get an early harvest but have to see what mother nature has in store for me first, either way I'll at least have a jump on the season and not be behind like this year. Gonna have to end up dragging all the plants in to let pods ripen up, so far so good on the night time temps!

-J
 
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